Water conditioners, especially those that are called “water softeners”, commonly are comprised of a conditioning tank and a brine tank. The water is “softened” as it passes through the conditioning tank where problem-causing calcium and magnesium ions in the water are replaced (by ion-exchange) with sodium ions. Since sodium does not precipitate out in pipes or react badly with soap, both of the problems of hard water are eliminated. To do the ion replacement, the water in the house runs through a bed of small plastic beads or through a chemical matrix called zeolite either of which fill the conditioning tank. The beads or zeolite are covered with sodium ions. As the water flows past the sodium ions, a chemical reaction occurs that exchanges the sodium ions for the calcium and magnesium ions. Eventually, the beads or zeolite contain mostly calcium and magnesium and the sodium is mostly depleted. At this point the softening process either stops or becomes very inefficient, such that the conditioning tank must be regenerated.
Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of sodium ions. Common salt is sodium chloride, so a very strong brine solution made by dissolving salt pellets in water is created in the brine tank and then flushed through the zeolite or beads. The brine solution displaces the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium (ion exchange). The resulting solution of weak brine with calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a drain pipe.
Thus the brine tank must be refilled with salt periodically so that new brine can be created by dissolving the salt in water in the brine tank. The invention is primarily designed to address the problems associated with refilling a water softener brine tank with “salt”, which preferably is in the form of pellets which are typically about ½ inch by ¾ inch oblongs that are purchased in bags weighing 40 or 80 pounds. The salt is also available in smaller pellets that are more granular like large gauge rock salt, but the larger pellets are preferable. The brine tank is typically located in a basement area and is loaded through a removably covered opening on the top of the brine tank, which is generally at least three feet above the floor level. The bags of salt are either purchased in a store and brought home in a personal vehicle, or may be delivered by a service. In either case the bags typically are in a garage or other outside storage area until they are needed. Carrying these rather heavy bags (40 to 80 pounds each) down to the basement and then lifting them high enough to dump into the top of the brine tank can prove to be difficult for many, and nearly impossible for elderly homeowners. Some have resorted to scooping the pellets out of the bag and into a much smaller pail, then carrying the pail downstairs and dumping into the tank. This works but can be very time consuming and tiring with many trips up and down the basement stairs and possibly also a step ladder by the tank.
Therefore a means for conveying salt pellets from a heavy bag at a remote location (e.g., a garage or carport) and delivering the pellets into a brine tank in the house (e.g., basement) is desirable. The system should be simple to minimize cost for consumer use, and should minimize the effort (e.g., lifting, carrying) required from the user such that even elderly and/or physically challenged individuals will be able to use it.
Pneumatic conveyors are known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,104,743 (Rainville et al.; 2006) discloses a vacuum receiver (10 in Rainville's FIG. 1) for a pneumatic conveyor for conveying, e.g., plastic pellets, having a receiving vessel (12) with a material inlet (14), a material outlet (20) and a conveying gas outlet (36). A conveying gas source (40), such as a vacuum pump, is connected via a connecting tube (38) to the conveying gas outlet. Material inlet (14) is connected to a granular material source (16) via a connecting tube (18). A mounting flange (32) is secured to the receiving vessel to facilitate mounting the receiving vessel in a desired position above a receiving hopper (24), which may, for example, be a supply hopper for a plastic molding machine. As seen more clearly in Rainville's FIG. 2, which is a sectional view of the vacuum receiver (10), a screen (34) is provided in front of the conveying gas outlet, the screen serving to separate conveyed particles, e.g. plastic pellets, from a stream of conveying gas, e.g. air, inside the vacuum receiver. A lid seal (28), is disposed between the receiving vessel (12) and the receiver lid (26) in order to provide a gas-tight closure. A powered discharge valve (52) is disposed in the material outlet (20). In operation, the material is drawn through the connecting tube from the material source to the receiver. When the receiver is sufficiently full with a batch of material, the vacuum pump is turned off and the discharge valve is opened to dump the material into the hopper.
The Rainville '743 patent describes a fairly sophisticated commercial apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive system for home use, particularly for conveying pellets of salt to a water softener brine tank. The inventive device must convey relatively large oblong pellets (e.g., ½″ by ¾″). It is an object that the pellets be loadable into the system from bags in a location remote from the brine tank, and furthermore that the loading process requires only a minimum of effort (e.g., lifting, carrying) from the user.